‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore, an Episcopal minister, wrote a long Christmas
poem for his three daughters entitled “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas.”
Moore’s poem, which he was initially hesitant to publish due to the frivolous
nature of its subject, is largely responsible for our modern image of Santa
Claus as a “right jolly old elf” with a portly figure and the supernatural
ability to ascend a chimney with a mere nod of his head! Although some of
Moore’s imagery was probably borrowed from other sources, his poem helped
popularize the now-familiar image of a Santa Claus who flew from house to house
on Christmas Eve–in “a miniature sleigh” led by eight flying reindeer–leaving
presents for deserving children. “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas”
created a new and immediately popular American icon. In 1881, political
cartoonist Thomas Nast drew on Moore’s poem to create the first likeness that
matches our modern image of Santa Claus. His cartoon, which appeared in Harper’s
Weekly, depicted Santa as a rotund, cheerful man with a full, white beard,
holding a sack laden with toys for lucky children. It is Nast who gave Santa his
bright red suit trimmed with white fur, North Pole workshop, elves, and his
wife, Mrs. Claus.
A Santa by Any Other Name
18th-century America’s Santa Claus was not the only St. Nicholas-inspired
gift-giver to make an appearance at Christmastime. Similar figures were popular
all over the world. Christkind or Kris Kringle was believed to deliver presents
to well-behaved Swiss and German children. Meaning “Christ child,” Christkind is
an angel-like figure often accompanied by St. Nicholas on his holiday missions.
In Scandinavia, a jolly elf named Jultomten was thought to deliver gifts in a
sleigh drawn by goats. English legend explains that Father Christmas visits each
home on Christmas Eve to fill children’s stockings with holiday treats. Pere
Noel is responsible for filling the shoes of French children. In Russia, it is
believed that an elderly woman named Babouschka purposely gave the wise men
wrong directions to Bethlehem so that they couldn’t find Jesus. Later, she felt
remorseful, but could not find the men to undo the damage. To this day, on
January 5, Babouschka visits Russian children leaving gifts at their bedsides in
the hope that one of them is the baby Jesus and she will be forgiven. In Italy,
a similar story exists about a woman called La Befana, a kindly witch who rides
a broomstick down the chimneys of Italian homes to deliver toys into the
stockings of lucky children.
The Ninth Reindeer
Rudolph, “the most famous reindeer of all,” was born over a hundred years
after his eight flying counterparts. The red-nosed wonder was the creation of
Robert L. May, a copywriter at the Montgomery Ward department store.
In 1939, May wrote a Christmas-themed story-poem to help bring holiday traffic into his store. Using a similar rhyme pattern to Moore’s “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” May told the story of Rudolph, a young reindeer who was teased by the other deer because of his large, glowing, red nose. But, When Christmas Eve turned foggy and Santa worried that he wouldn’t be able to deliver gifts that night, the former outcast saved Christmas by leading the sleigh by the light of his red nose. Rudolph’s message—that given the opportunity, a liability can be turned into an asset—proved popular. Montgomery Ward sold almost two and a half million copies of the story in 1939. When it was reissued in 1946, the book sold over three and half million copies. Several years later, one of May’s friends, Johnny Marks, wrote a short song based on Rudolph’s story (1949). It was recorded by Gene Autry and sold over two million copies. Since then, the story has been translated into 25 languages and been made into a television movie, narrated by Burl Ives, which has charmed audiences every year since 1964.
In 1939, May wrote a Christmas-themed story-poem to help bring holiday traffic into his store. Using a similar rhyme pattern to Moore’s “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” May told the story of Rudolph, a young reindeer who was teased by the other deer because of his large, glowing, red nose. But, When Christmas Eve turned foggy and Santa worried that he wouldn’t be able to deliver gifts that night, the former outcast saved Christmas by leading the sleigh by the light of his red nose. Rudolph’s message—that given the opportunity, a liability can be turned into an asset—proved popular. Montgomery Ward sold almost two and a half million copies of the story in 1939. When it was reissued in 1946, the book sold over three and half million copies. Several years later, one of May’s friends, Johnny Marks, wrote a short song based on Rudolph’s story (1949). It was recorded by Gene Autry and sold over two million copies. Since then, the story has been translated into 25 languages and been made into a television movie, narrated by Burl Ives, which has charmed audiences every year since 1964.
